Thursday, January 15, 2015

Thanks for ***this***, Andrew. It seems very thorough, raises many interesting issues and inevitably invites some questioning and discussion.

The most difficult problem is bringing people of religion together to discuss, reflect and make positive change based on the issues raised. As with political, nationalistic and all other believers, those who are most willing to discuss are not those who must (in my humble opinion) reflect, compromise and/or change the nature of their beliefs to the benefit of all humanity. Maybe the UN should take it up with the central authority of each religion ... who's that?!.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

The ***Pew study*** is yet another statement in the case for laws requiring citizens to vote.

We share the cost of elections and the price of ignorance only so that the candidate with the most money can win. Isn't it about time we made voting mandatory -- and imposed restrictions on candidate financing?

Laws should mandate that all citizens vote in federal, state(?) and local(?) elections with some sort of penalty, tax and/or reward*. All citizens should be required to go to the polls in order to create an accurate vote distribution. Not showing up shows only ignorance or laziness of the voter. A blank ballot or no vote in a particular race says something.

A 51% vote with 48% turnout (the last election) is 24% -- less than half a majority. We should report the reality.

____
*that could be a tax rebate or cancellation, eg, you're taxed. If you vote, it's cancelled. Or if you miss voting three elections in a row, you become an illegal alien.

Margaret Yonco-Haines wrote on 1/10/2015 1:38 PM:

> The result of this Pew study isn’t surprising but the data speaks volumes.
> I don’t know how to solve this one but we’ve got to try to push it back at
> the edges.